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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Citizen, 1999-12-29, Page 7THE CITIZEN MILLENNIUM ISSUE, WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 29, 1999. PAGE 7. Hamlet of Ethel 'Train station brought business to early Ethel Main street R. C. Davies & Co. store, circa 1905 The mill as it looks today The small community on Cone 7 and 8 (Brandon Rd and Molesworth Line), Lots 21 and 22 of Grey Twp. began as Carter’s, Carter’s Mills or Carter’s Corners. When the post office was established, however, Carter’s Mills was already taken so Ethel was assigned. The first settlers in the area were Jacob Storm, Alex Hutchinson and Robert Ross who purchased Lots 22- 24, respectively, in 1860. The train station just outside the hamlet brought a lot of business to the existing mills including Milne’s where a building still stands at William Spence’s restaurant in Ethel Arthur and Mill Streets. Weigh scales were installed in 1905 then moved to Mill Street in 1918. The village rebuilt the scales in 1927. They were sold to Robert Cunningham in 1955. The flour and grist mill burned in 1912 and was reconstructed as a chopping mill. After a succession of owners, D.W. Dunbar bought the mill in 1925. It burned in 1931, but was rebuilt by Cliff Dunbar replicating the previous structure. With many changes, renovations and moves in Ethel over the years, very few buildings remain in their original state or location. James Spence built a store which housed the post office at the north­ east comer of Mill and Main Streets. There was a stable in back of the store and a pottery was to the south. The clay used at the shop was drawn from land now owned by Bill Turnbull of Brussels on Huron County Rd. 12, (Brussels Line) were ponds still mark the site. The first doctor’s office was at the comer of Mill and Main. A hardware store was built on this lot in 1887 and a livery operated from the south­ ern section along mill Street. In 1899, a store was completed on the next lot east and hardware was moved from Dunbar’s store to this location. During this time there was also a butcher shop, blacksmith, general store, dry goods store, millinery, dress and mantle shop and jewellery store. In later years, there was a trac­ tor repair shop where the blacksmith once was. To the northeast, the Comer Block had two entrances. A hall and meeting rooms were created in the upstairs area. It burned in 1909 and was rebuilt as a two-storey struc­ ture with four stores and apartments. It burned again in 1923. After the first fire, a general store, grocery store, post office, confec­ tionary, restaurant, barber, feed and flour shop and notary public occu­ pied the block. There was a dance hall and apartments on the second floor. Fire walls had been installed between the stores, but not on the second floor. When fire started in the comer store, it soon spread upward and across to the other shops. Stores were rebuilt, but the post office moved across the comer to Dunbar’s store. A general store, and at times, a bake shop or restaurant, operated out of the Comer Block, under various owners until the mid-1990s. The postal outlet returned to the comer store in 1960. The library building was moved across the road in the late 1940s and the west end stores of the block were demolished. Gas pumps were later installed. The first bank in Ethel was on Lot 23, Cone. 8 (Molesworth Line), in the Love Block. The Bank of Hamilton moved in 1919 to the fourth lot south along King Street. After the Bank of Commerce operat­ ed for a few years, the building was sold to the township in 1925 and used for council meetings and the township office. It remained there until operations moved to the public works building on Lot 21, Cone. 9 (Newry Rd) in 1978. Renovations were made to the office facilities in the mid-1990s to expand council chambers and office space. North of Main Street was the final location for the Ethel library. A hotel to the west burned in 1890. A brick building, The Royal, replaced it almost immediately. The Temperance movement result­ ed in a decline in hotel business by 1908. Part of the building was used as a grocery store and barber shop. The livery stable for the hotel had many owners and uses over the years including tinsmithing, welding and car and machinery repair. By 1912, the hotel was turned into a residence. It returned as a confectionary, restau­ rant and cigarette store in 1945. In Ethel station at Tindall the 1970s, it was used for the sale of cement lawn ornaments. The livery stable was demolished in the 1980s. Next door there was a grocery which was used over the years as a restaurant, harness and shoe shop. Down the street there was a grocery store which housed the post office for a time, The property for the township office at the west end of Ethel was purchased in 1892. With the pur­ chase of a former bank building in 1925, the building was used as a community hall and still is today. The township garage, which stood on the church lot after it was moved in 1917, was sold to the fire depart­ ment in 1975. A former saw mill and bending and carriage factory at Reserve Street, by 1901, were used for a hardware store, broom maker, tin­ smithing, implement dealer, livery stable, barber shop and grocery. The buildings were tom down in 1972. An old cement building in this block, once used by the township clerk became known as the soup kitchen when the township supplied transient men with food and a place to stay in the 1930s. In 1927, the Presbyterians added a basement, entry and bricked the original frame church. The Methodist Church was moved from the west end of the village and down the street on rollers in 1917 to the fourth lot west of John Street and north of Main. It became the United Church in 1925. A new school house was construct­ ed in 1914. When schools were cen­ tralized in the mid-1960s, a public school, Grey Central, was built south of the community along County Rd. 19 (Ethel Line). () Proposed road names